Fed: Closing Uluru climb will take time, conference told

AAP General News (Australia)
04-23-2010
Fed: Closing Uluru climb will take time, conference told

By Tony Bartlett

HOBART, April 23 AAP - The inbound tourism industry has been told international and
Australian operators have to be weaned off selling a climb of Uluru as an attraction to
visitors.

The managing director of the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC). Matt Hingerty,
told Australia's largest tourism conference in Hobart on Friday the move towards closing
the Uluru climb will continue to be slow, but the day will come when people will no longer
be allowed to scale the rock.

"I don't want to say this in an accusatory way, and there's a lot of audiences we're
talking about here, but Australians in general feel a collective ownership about Uluru
and while they might not be planning to visit tomorrow or next year, they will want to
visit and some of them will want to have the experience of climbing the rock," he said.

"It's the same with international tourists - research shows part of the reason people
are sold on coming to Uluru in the first place is the opportunity to climb, particularly
among the Japanese market."

Mr Hingerty said once they arrive, however, the vast majority understand that the traditional
owners prefer people not to climb the monolith. Many others back out when they see how
difficult and dangerous the ascent can be.

"At the moment we're in that half-way era where we need to wean the industry off the
climb because from a tour operator's point of view it's a poor product," he said.

"It's closed at short notice, it's closed more often than not, it is dangerous, we
have an ageing customer base, and when you are selling structured itineraries into the
future you can't rely on the rock climb to be open.

"And most of the tour operators are over it, although the small tourism businesses
in the area who rely on people coming to the rock are a little less sanguine about it
closing."

More space needs to be opened up around Uluru for low-impact, world-class infrastructure
suitable for a range of foreign and Australian tourists.

"There is a very fragile ecosystem around the rock ... so there's the cultural issues
but also the biodiversity issues that have to be managed as well," he said.

"It's a very democratic attraction - everybody, no matter what their background or
income, needs to be able to have a good experience at the rock.

"We're a long way away from that but it's getting better, so before we can do things
like close the climb, we have to provide that infrastructure."

AAP bart/pjo/jhp

KEYWORD: ULURU

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